Christmas message 2019

It's been a busy and rather exciting year, with a few sad moments. Apologies if this is a longer post than usual but there's lots to report!

One of the biggest thrills has been seeing the first year of life of our granddaughter Ivy, born on December 20 2018. She's crawling, starting to make noises that could soon be words, and is just dying to stand and walk. She is without doubt the most beautiful baby in Britain, and probably the world, as you can see.

 

 

Ivy on her first birthday, December 20

Ivy is the first member of the next generation of Herrmanns, so has also been the first great-grandchild for my mother Patricia, now 92 and still doing very well, and the first niece, great-niece or first cousin once removed for other members of the family.

Guy finally resigned as the Orfordness boatman at the end of the 2019 season after crossing the River Ore at least a million times, and is now working for Harbour Marine, the boatyard at Southwold. Kai went back to work at Framlingham Castle late in 2019. We are incredibly proud of all three of them.

Front & back of Guy's leaving present from the National Trust

Not to be left out, Ben and Anne announced their engagement during a trip to Singapore in November.

Anne's lovely star sapphire

In February our new kitchen was finally finished with tiling in place. Finding the right tiles proved astonishingly difficult but in the end the result was lovely. And the kitchen is still pretty tidy, one year on!

It's been a busy year for travel, too. In March and April Camilla and Sam embarked on the trip of a lifetime – two weeks in Australia, followed by a two-week cruise from Melbourne to New Zealand and back. We had a lovely apartment in Crow's Nest, Sydney for a week, managed to catch up with an old friend Bev from the East Anglian Daily Times, and caught buses into the city (the buses are all accessible and the drivers very helpful) and taxis back. We did the ferries, the northern beaches, the zoo, the Opera House (with visit to the opera), Bondi Beach and plenty of wandering round. In spite of the hills, which are not ideal with a wheelchair, we both enjoyed Sydney hugely.

Fabulous view from the zoo

In Melbourne we had a waterside apartment in Docklands which we thought had a pretty good view...

Fabulous view from the Melbourne apartment

...until we visited my aunt's stepson and his partner, who live on the 66th floor of the Eureka Tower! During six days in Melbourne we also managed to catch up with a friend from Norwich Union days and attend the Cruising Association's Melbourne lunch party, so it was a pretty sociable time.

Then it was aboard Golden Princess and off for a trip around New Zealand. This was the last trip of the season and it was starting to rain after a very dry summer, which was great for the locals but slightly disappointing for us. It didn't make NZ any less beautiful (although it was sadly too windy for the ship to go into Fjordland on the South Island), and we had some glorious days including the least windy day of the year in Wellington.

Otago Harbour off Dunedin, where we saw a rare yellow-eyed penguin

Sam's two older sons urged that whatever we did we must not miss out on Hobbiton. So I contacted them directly to arrange a golf-cart tour of this most iconic film set. They were incredibly helpful and even liaised with Princess so we could travel on the coach with everyone else, then get our very own guide who drove us around. We'd spent the time at sea between Australia and New Zealand re-watching all of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, and in Camilla's case re-reading the books, so we we were well up to speed with the details and were able to ask intelligent questions. Around 40% of visitors to Hobbiton have never even seen any of the films.

Sam coped remarkably well with the long flights. On the way back we took the Qantas Dreamliner which is 17.5 hours non-stop from Perth to London. It has an extra inch of legroom compared with the Airbus via Singapore on the way out, which made a big difference to him.

Camilla in a hobbit-house...

...and Sam in the Green Dragon

While we were away our engineer had been installing a new engine in Kalessin. After extensive dithering (by us) he recommended another Volvo Penta because replacing like with like needs much less labour than installing a different brand. All new engines turn in the opposite direction from our old Volvo 2002, but astonishingly the feathering prop could just be removed, sent to Darglow who pulled out the middle and flipped it around, all for around £200 which is vastly less than the cost of a new prop. The new engine is a Penta D1-30 delivering 27hp, which is more than 50% up on the previous one. See our previous post for details.

We've managed to make pretty good use of the engine, and indeed the rest of the boat, with trips to London in May with HPYC and Simon, Saint-Valery-sur-Somme and Dieppe with the Westerly Owners and Bob & Elaine in June, Southwold and Lowestoft at the end of August with Alex & David followed by two weeks in the Netherlands in September with Ben & Anne. We like being in the non-tidal Netherlands so much we're thinking of spending the whole season there in 2020 and maybe even overwintering there as well.

Saint-Valery's glorious estuary

Down a steep hill at low tide to our berth in Dieppe

After 30 years of living in Suffolk we finally sailed into Southwold!

Hoorn was just one of the lovely Dutch ports we visited

Some of you may know that Camilla has sung for many years with a small a capella group called Rough at the Edges. In February we lost our oldest member, Barny. He had been suffering from dementia for some time but is still much missed. In May came the shocking news of the death of our founder, Tim Brook. Tim was 64, only a year older than Camilla. He suffered an abdominal aortic aneurysm and died during the emergency operation. We cut short our trip to France so that Sam and I, and Bob and Elaine, could attend his funeral.

Tim (left) and Barny at Sally's wedding in 2009

In the interest of staying healthy, this has been the year in which Camilla started running. In January she embarked on the Couch to 5k programme which is highly recommended. Many people comment that they haven't run since schooldays; in Camilla's case she didn't even run at school, so this was a bit of a shock to the system! The initial aim was to complete the 5k Resolution Run in aid of the Stroke association in February. She did that with a bit of walking, then went on to the very tiny Stradbroke Triathlon (160m swim, 17k cycle ride, 3k run) and then the Adnams 10k at Southwold in November.

Resolution Run, Stradbroke Tri, Adnams 10k

Next up is the 2020 Resolution Run, this time aiming for 10k at Gorleston. We already have a JustGiving page - do make a donation if you can.

In between coming nearly last in these events, Camilla has run in Hoxne, Bury St Edmunds, Sydney, Melbourne, on board Golden Princess, London, Saint-Valery-sur-Somme, Southwold, Lowestoft, Amsterdam, Hoorn and Whaley Bridge alongside the Peak Forest Canal. How very extraordinary this all is.

Meanwhile Sam carries on much as before, perhaps a little slower, a little harder to understand and a little more tired each year. As long as we plan recovery days when he can spend the morning in bed he can cope with most outings and activities. He regularly attends two stroke clubs, spends one day a week at the Street Forge workshops and swims at the lovely Stradbroke pool.

Camilla is still editing the quarterly magazine, monthly email newsletter and Yearbook for the Cruising Association. At the beginning of the year she was awarded the CA's President's Plate for Outstanding Service to The Cruising Association, which normally goes only to volunteers. To say she was gobsmacked is putting it mildly.

Camilla with CA Patron Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. You don't get to keep the plate but you do get a nice cut-glass goblet.

One final bit of good news. When we agreed to get married in 1988, Sam bought Camilla a lovely star sapphire ring. Sometime in the last couple of years it went missing. Camilla was convinced it was in a safe place, but just couldn't track it down. In September, by chance, she found a receipt from Albrow the jeweller in Norwich. Surely she couldn't have taken it there and forgotten? Anyway she popped in there, saying very hesitantly "Hi, this is probably a really stupid question... I have found this receipt but it's probably for something else... any chance?" The chap found the receipt stub, said it's for a single stone ring (good news) which had never been collected (blimey) but fortunately they keep repairs forever (hooray), he'd look in the safe ... and there it was. Apparently Camilla took it in for a repair during April 2017, they phoned and left a message in early May, and the message never got through.

Found at last: Camilla's star sapphire - bluer and paler than Anne's

This has been an epic update but it has been a very busy year. Next year is likely to be quieter, although we do plan a transatlantic cruise with P&O and as mentioned, hopefully some sailing in the Netherlands. It's been great to ctach up with some of you during the year and hopefully we'll see even more of you in 2020. In the meantime, have a wonderful Christmas.